Yahweh’s Seven Feasts and Three Festivals
When Yahweh gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He commanded His people to celebrate three festivals to Him each year. Yahweh said,
Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.
Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD (Exodus 23:14-17).
These three festivals were reminders of what Yahweh had done for His people when He brought them out of Egypt. They are also designed to show how He would fulfill His promises to His people. Feast in Hebrew means appointed time.
The first Festival each year is Unleavened Bread. (Abib or Nisan – March or April)
The Festival of Unleavened Bread includes Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Lord's Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast (Leviticus 23:5-6).
At the First Coming, Christ who was without sin (leaven) sacrificed Himself on the cross. His perfect sacrifice provides a means of escape from sin, for His people.
Old Covenant
It is the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians (Exodus 12:27).
With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves (Exodus 12:39).
New Covenant
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival [Unleavened Bread], not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
The second festival is Harvest. (Sivan – May/June)
The Festival of Harvest includes Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks also called Pentecost.
Celebrate the Feast of Harvest (Weeks) with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, (Exodus 23:22).
On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Feast of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work (Numbers 28:26).
At the First Coming, Christ became the firstfruits of the harvest by His resurrection from the dead. He then gave to His people the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit as a deposit until their resurrection which will take place at the Last Trumpet. The day of Trumpets will occur at the time Christ appears and begins the fall Festival of Ingathering.
Old Covenant
Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field (Exodus 23:16).
New Covenant
When the day of Pentecost came, … All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. ... this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’ (Acts 2:1-17).
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).
But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (1 Corinthians 15:23).
The third Festival is Ingathering. (Tishri – Sept/Oct)
The Festival of Ingathering includes the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.
On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts (Leviticus 23:24).
The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. (Leviticus 23:27).
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days (Leviticus 23:34).
At His Second Coming, Christ will first gather and resurrect His people at the Last Trumpet. He will also judge His people, completing the atonement which He made on the cross for sin. Christ will then tabernacle (live) with His people forever.
Old Covenant
On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts (Leviticus 23:24).
Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before Yahweh your God (Leviticus 23:28).
Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt (Leviticus 23:42-43).
New Covenant
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’ (Revelation 11:15).
The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great- (Revelation 11:18).
Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God (Revelation 21:3).
The festivals are designed to show Yahweh's people how He will fulfill His promises. We have already seen how Yahweh used His festivals (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Harvest) to fulfill His the first part of His plan , at Christ's First Coming.
Therefore, the final festival of (Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles) will show how Yahweh plans to complete His plan at His Second Coming.
Richard H Perry
